Arsenal: Rob Holding Shows If You’re Good Enough, You’re Old Enough

Rob Holding was the best of Arsenal’s three centre-halves in their win over Middlesbrough, showing that if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.

Even when the team was announced at 7 PM on Monday night on Twitter, the usual hour before kick off, with the fancy graphic and all-important names, I still did not expect Arsenal to play three-at-the-back. For all my life as a fan, I never thought I’d see the day when Arsene Wenger makes sweeping tactic changes.

Related Story: Arsenal: 3 Things Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Needs More Of

And yet, here it was.

It was clear what Wenger had in mind. By playing two wing backs, he would be able to release the defensive shackles restricting his two best and most creative players: Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 observations from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park

While a tad clunky and mechanical, it was, for the most part, a system that worked. However, it was not the players for which the formation was implemented who flourished. While it may have been Sanchez and Ozil who scored the two goals to see Arsenal win just their fourth game since February 11th, the man who patrolled the pitch head and shoulders above his teammates, equally with the effervescent Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who relentlessly bombed up and down the right flank, was Rob Holding.

The young central defender has had to be patient for his opportunities. Deployed only in lesser domestic cup games, Holding not been trusted by his manager up to this point in the biggest games. But with Shkodran Mustafi absent through injury and Wenger insistent on implementing a new trio of centre-halves, there was no choice but to start Holding.

Holding did not disappoint his manager. Playing on the left-hand side of the three, he looked the most comfortable. Laurent Koscielny was caught out by Alvaro Negredo’s drifting towards the back post for the goal and Gabriel struggled with the slight change in positioning that came when stationed wide of a three, rather than centrally as a duo.

Holding, though, was imperious throughout. He was excellent in the air, accurate in his distribution, completing 85.6% of his passes, and positionally astute in his defending. Perhaps what was most prominent and significant was the calmness and maturity he showed, especially when defending one-on-ones, for such a young age.

Next: Arsenal Vs Middlesbrough: 5 Things We Learned

And that is the crux of the issue. Centre-halves tend to be players who boast vast experience, have been stalwarts for years, ever-present for their respective sides. But Holding is now questioning that premonition. Holding is claiming that if you’re good enough, you’re old enough, and it may just be time to believe him.